Bremer in Hot Water Over Interim Administration

As he scraped the national conference the political parties threatened to boycott an interim administration whose members Brember plans to appoint without holding the promised national conference.

Bremer however tried to downplay the threat, saying, “If parties decide they do not want to take part in this [informal consultation], that is their choice.”

Iraqi groups maintain that the interim government should be elected by the Iraqi people, else the Bermer’s chosen body will be tantamount to a lackey of the United States and will be boycotted by them.

The Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) has announced that the only condition for its participation in the interim administration is that the body should be elected by the Iraqi people or their true representatives.

Seemingly the United States will be running the show in Iraq with the Iraqis in the interim administration playing an “advisory role” role.

The interim administration will play a “vital role” in advising the U.S. authority in Iraq, Bremer said.

The Leader of the SAIRI, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a Shia cleric, announced last month upon his return to Iraq that he did not want to establish an Islamic government in Iraq, but emphasized that the future government of Iraq should be representative of all political inclinations.

Bermer was due to convene seven Iraqi political groups on June 6 to discuss a plan aiming to establish an interim Iraqi council, consisting of 25 to 30 members, two months after the collapse of Saddam Hussein.

Ayatollah al-Hakim, met the leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masoud Barzani in Najaf on June 5 and discussed the plan with him.

The Iraqis must establish their own government, Hakim said after exchanging views with the Kurdish leader.

We can form our government within a month, Hakim said after the meeting.

On his return to Iraq last month after more than two decades of exile, Hakim was accorded a hero welcome by the Shias in Basra, Najaf and Karbala.

The Kurdish leader Barzani said last week that his group would not participate in Bremer’s proposed interim body, if he failed to convene the promised national conference, but added that the doors were open for negotiations.

Kurds and Shiites constitute an absolute majority of the Iraqi population with the Shias constituting 65 percent of the total Iraqi population.